Estados Unidos de América - Increased private-sector employers’ anti-union campaigns (2010)

According to a May 2009 report from the American rights at work education Fund and Economic Policy Institute, in the last 20 years, the private-sector employer opposition to workers seeking their legal right to union representation has intensified. Anti-union campaigns including coercive and punitive tactics such as workers’ threats, harassment, surveillance, and retaliation for supporting a union have increased. Employers also threaten employees with plant closure or even close plants. An analysis of the 1999-2003 data on NLRB election campaigns finds that: 63% of employers interrogate workers in mandatory one-on-one meetings with their supervisors about support for the union; 54% of employers threaten workers in such meetings; 57% of employers threaten to close the work-site; 47% of employers threaten to cut wages and benefits; and 34% of employers fire workers.